Community groups do health care outreach

Jacqueline Portillo (left) speaks to Victorina Calmo about serving as a volunteer to inform people about health care changes.

Jacqueline Portillo (left) speaks to Victorina Calmo about serving as a volunteer to inform people about health care changes.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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As a food bank, Oakland's Hawthorne Family Resource Center is an ideal spot to provide outreach on the new health care law.

As a food bank, Oakland's Hawthorne Family Resource Center is an ideal spot to provide outreach on the new health care law.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 3

Jacqueline Portillo, left, helps Reina Beltran fill out her paperwork for Medical at the Hawthorne Family Resource Center in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 23, 2013. Beltran had recently arrived from El Salvador and needed help to complete the paperwork. The federal government is giving grants to a lot of grassroots organizations to do outreach ahead of the opening of enrollment for the Affordable Care Act. One of the groups is the East Bay Agency for Children, which got a $425,000 grant to do outreach in 12 languages in Alameda County. less

Jacqueline Portillo, left, helps Reina Beltran fill out her paperwork for Medical at the Hawthorne Family Resource Center in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 23, 2013. Beltran had recently arrived from El ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

Community groups do health care outreach

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When people drop by the Hawthorne Family Resource Center in Oakland's Fruitvale district to pick up bags of food from the county food bank, a few stop to talk with Jacqueline Portillo.

Portillo, a senior program coordinator with the East Bay Agency for Children, answers their questions about food stamps and Medi-Cal and can help them address housing problems. Soon, her repertoire will include another service: educating people about the state's new insurance marketplace created by the health care reform law.

Much implementation of the Affordable Care Act has moved from Washington to state capitals and is now trickling out into communities, where local organizations are being tapped to realize the ultimate goal: Get people health insurance.

It will not be easy. Many people do not understand what the law does or that its major components kick in come January. Add in California's diverse population - including low-income residents and those who do not speak English - and the challenge grows.

"They know that it's going to be changed - they hear about it," Portillo said of the people with whom she works. But, she added, they don't know how the changes will affect them.

Groups get grants

In California, a state that has been among the most aggressive in implementing the law often referred to as Obamacare, officials are relying in part on nonprofit organizations, unions and universities to teach people about the law.

Covered California - the state agency overseeing the exchange where millions of Californians will be able to buy subsidized coverage - this month announced $37 million in grants to 48 groups for education and outreach initiatives. The East Bay Agency for Children received a $425,000 grant and plans to do outreach in 12 languages in Alameda County.

"Covered California can't deliver this message from behind desks in Sacramento," Peter Lee, the executive director of Covered California, said when announcing the grants.

Most of the organizations have ties to specific populations including students, American Indians, Latinos, blacks, Arabs and Asians. To reach them, the groups will canvass schools, religious institutions, fairs and businesses. In turn, the groups will supply California with information about the potential enrollees.

Lack of awareness

The main pieces of the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010, will take effect in January, but an April poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 4 in 10 Americans were unaware that it was actually a law and was being implemented. That figure rose to 59 percent when looking only at households that make less than $30,000, many of whom could benefit most from the law.

"And about half the public says they do not have enough information about the health reform law to understand how it will impact their own family, a share that rises among the uninsured and low-income households," according to the survey.

A September study by UC Berkeley and UCLA found that 3 million to 4 million Californians will remain uninsured after the law is implemented, 2 million of whom will be eligible for subsidies to buy insurance in the exchange or for expanded Medicaid. "With stronger outreach and enrollment efforts, this group of uninsured would be reduced to 1.2 million or fewer," the study says.

That's where the local organizations come in. Some are working in just a few counties, while some have statewide reach.

Access California Services, for example, is using eight languages to focus on Arabs and Muslims throughout the state with its $500,000 grant. A program at UC Berkeley received $1 million to contact part-time and seasonal Latino workers. And an arm of the Service Employees International Union was awarded money to do outreach to its members.

Outreach strategies

Melinda Cordero, the associate director of Vision y Compromiso, which received a $1 million grant, said her organization is targeting Latinos by going to cultural events and churches. They are trying to identify people who work in the construction, restaurant and hotel industries who might be eligible for the exchange.

She said some people are wary of the law because they are not sure how it will affect them.

"There's a lack of information and a lack of understanding about what the Affordable Care Act will actually do and will actually change," Cordero said. "That's not only the primary comment, but concern."

Affordable Care Act

Here are some key dates in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act:

Oct. 1, 2013: Enrollment starts for the exchange, the state's online marketplace where people can buy insurance.

Jan. 1, 2014: Coverage starts.

March 31, 2014: Enrollment for 2014 ends, meaning many people who do not have some form of coverage will face fines.